


Three Moons Setting

by Decepticonsensual



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:00:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24153217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Decepticonsensual/pseuds/Decepticonsensual
Summary: Once upon a time (in a galaxy far, far away), there is a boy who lives on Tatooine... and his name is Luke Ohnaka.In a world where the aftermath of the Clone Wars went a little differently, a grief-stricken Obi-Wan Kenobi ends up the guardian for his one-time padawan's son, Luke.  Just the two of them, trying to make their way all alone in the world.Well, the two of them and the bounty hunter Obi-Wan's had an on-again, off-again thing for since the last days of the Republic.And the pirate king who's always flirted wildly with both of them every chance he got.This is the story of a strange little found family, and the child they'd do anything to protect.  (Or, how Luke was raised by his trio of space criminal uncles, and somehow still turned out to be a ray of sunshine.)
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi/Cad Bane/Hondo Onaka
Comments: 22
Kudos: 91





	1. Rogue

**Author's Note:**

> Content notes: Some sexual content. Further warnings may appear on individual chapters; please proceed with caution.
> 
> This fic stands as an object lesson about the dangers of AUs, my friends; one moment, you're throwing out a fun what-if premise in casual conversation, and the next, you're awake at three in the morning, up to your neck in a multi-chapter story about Luke being raised by Obi-Wan, Hondo Ohnaka, and Cad Bane. :)
> 
> This is a series of vignettes rather than a single arc, and may jump around in time a bit.

Once upon a time (in a galaxy far, far away), there is a boy who lives on Tatooine, and his name is Luke Ohnaka.

***

  
  


_They decided on Hondo’s surname for the kid; Obi-Wan’s risked drawing attention, so he said (although the haunted look in his eyes at the time suggested it was more than that, that there were questions of possession and guilt and atonement to be dealt with before he could even consider putting his own name on Anakin Skywalker’s child). Cad merely sneered at the suggestion of Luke Bane, and not without reason – it would be a hard sell, convincing anyone who’d even heard of him that the infamous Cad Bane had had a child, and hadn’t immediately pawned it off to the highest bidder._

_(The infamous Cad Bane would shoot his way through a battalion to get Luke back if anything ever happened to the boy, but reputation is reputation, as he has told Obi-Wan many a time.)_

***

When Luke is nine, he hotwires his uncle Hondo’s speeder and jets off to bullseye womp rats at the bottom of Drifter’s Canyon.

He returns to find all three of his uncles waiting at the gate of the compound for him (because of course they are; Luke has long since given up any real hope of _getting away_ with things). Uncle Hondo swoops down on him, grasping him by the shoulders, and proclaims, “Such _betrayal!_ Such _subterfuge!_ This is what you do to your old uncle, child? Steal from me and abandon me? You might as well knife me in the heart!” He clutches his chest, then bursts into a grin that shows off every sharp grey tooth. “I’m so _proud_ of you!”

Uncle Cad cackles, and just says, “Well, well. Told you the boy might be getting old enough to get into the family business.”

“Back off, Bane!” Uncle Hondo straightens and whirls on him indignantly. “This was clearly a first venture into _my_ business, not yours! When he comes back with some poor bastard tied up and thrown over the back of the speeder, _then_ maybe you can train him _except it would_ _have to_ _be over my dead body –_ ”

Luke’s grin abruptly falls off his face as he spots his third uncle hanging back behind the other two. Uncle Ben is watching Luke climb off the speeder, and as Luke takes off his helmet, shaking out his mop of blond hair, a spasm crosses Uncle Ben’s face, almost like he’s in pain.

“Uncle Ben?”

Uncle Cad and Uncle Hondo break off, as well, and turn to look. Just as suddenly, Uncle Ben is all smiles, but his smile doesn’t look right.

“Most impressive,” he says, striding over to crouch down in front of Luke. “But that was still terribly dangerous. What if you’d been hurt, and we didn’t know where you were?”

“I didn’t get hurt, though!” Luke protests. “I already learned all about piloting, I’m good at it!”

“Perhaps, but you _might_ have gotten hurt. There are far worse things out there than rocky terrain, you _know_ that. You must be more careful, Ana–”

Luke blinks. Uncle Ben has broken off, looking like someone has just punched him in the stomach.

Then he repeats in a croak, “You must be more careful,” and walks off abruptly, vanishing into the complex.

“Is Uncle Ben okay?” Luke asks.

Uncle Hondo scoops him up, perching Luke on his shoulder the way he normally carries his pet around. “He’ll be fine, little one. Next time, I take you out there myself, okay?”

“If you wanna learn to shoot worth a damn, _I’ll_ take you,” Uncle Cad mutters, but there’s no fire to it this time, as he watches Uncle Ben go.


	2. A Certain Point of View

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this world, Luke already knew about his father... kind of.
> 
> There are aspects no one talks about, though, and Luke's three guardians don't see eye-to-eye when it comes to filling in the blanks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content notes: This is the first chapter with (semi-)explicit sexual content - just FYI!

Luke grows up hearing about his father.

“He was a great man,” Uncle Ben tells him. “Brave, full of life, always with a desire to do right in the world. You’re a lot like him.”

“You’re nothing like him,” Uncle Cad tells him. “Your father has two lonely brain cells on a good day. Straight through the front door, and damn whatever’s on the other side. No brains, no patience.” Luke frowns at this assessment, even as preens a little under the implied praise that he is different (and implied praise is usually the strongest Uncle Cad is willing to dish out).

“Eh, you both talk back more than is good for you, that’s for sure,” Uncle Hondo tells him, slanting Luke a sidelong smile before he goes back to practising on the range. “Your father is a fighter. Even when I admired nothing else, I admired that.”

Luke grows up hearing about his father – stories, memories, but never many details.

“Was he a pirate?” he asks one evening, after a cup of Hoth chocolate and a particularly juicy story about his father jumping down from a tall building (many times taller than the ones in Mos Eisley, and Luke can’t quite wrap his head around _that_ ) to slice up some evil droids with a sword. “Or a bounty hunter?”

Uncle Ben lifts Luke up and plants him on his hip, and stands regarding him with mock solemnity. “We really must acquaint you with a broader range of professions.”

“What was he, then?” Luke knows by now that if he lets himself be distracted when Uncle Ben starts talking nonsense, he’ll never find anything out.

“He was...” Uncle Ben stares out the window. Outside, a few of Uncle Hondo’s crew are drinking and laughing in the courtyard; beyond that, the distant dunes are just barely visible above the compound walls. Everything is violet-tinged under the light of the rising third moon. “He was a soldier. So was I. We fought side-by-side for many years.”  
  


“Wow! Neat!” Luke lifts an imaginary blaster in his hands, making a _pew_ sound as he shoots the head off an evil droid. He tries to imagine Uncle Ben and his father (his father is mostly a tall shape in his mind, occasionally with the face of his favourite holovid star of the moment superimposed on it) in grey uniforms, like the soldiers in the holos; better yet, cool white armour, like the guards he’s occasionally seen around town. “So who’d you fight for? The Empire?” He hopes it wasn’t the Hutts.

“It was a long time ago,” says Uncle Ben after a moment, which isn’t really an answer.

Luke grows up hearing about his father, and the older he gets, the more the pieces don’t fit together.

They’re doing the dishes after lunch one day when Luke comes out with, “Is my dad dead?” and Uncle Ben fumbles the plate he’s cleaning, barely catching it before it can smash on the packed earth floor.

“What makes you ask that?”

“You always talk about him like he’s dead. You say he _was_ things.”

Uncle Ben sets the plate down carefully beside the sink, and looks at it rather than at Luke. “Well, Luke –”

“But they don’t.”

Uncle Ben’s head snaps up. Luke is pointing to the sofa in the living room, where Uncle Hondo is watching a holo on his personal screen, his head propped up against Uncle Cad’s thigh, and Uncle Cad is pretending to ignore him.

“Ah.” There’s a flatness to Uncle Ben’s voice that usually comes before a lot of yelling (though never at Luke). This time, though, he just stares hard at Luke’s other two uncles, who don’t look up. Luke notices that Uncle Hondo has paused his holo. “I’m sorry to say, Luke, that yes, your father is dead.”

And _now_ the other two are looking at them.

“From a certain point of view,” Uncle Ben continues.

“Yeah. And from a certain point of view, he’s alive and well and runnin’ around with a faceful of cybernetics, doin’ the Empire’s dirty work,” mutters Uncle Cad.

“ _Cad Bane!”_

“Told you I wasn’t gonna play this game, Kenobi. You don’t tell that boy the truth – and I mean real truth, not Jedi truth – and you might as well pin fresh steak to his sleeve and send him into a gundark nest.”

“Wait, what does he _mean_?” Luke is tugging at the edge of Uncle Ben’s tunic. “What does he mean, cybernetics? Does my dad work for the Empire? Why hasn’t he come to see me, ever? Why –”

Uncle Ben plants a hand on Luke’s shoulder to still him. His gaze is still fixed on Uncle Cad, and his expression is thunder. “I won’t let you push me into this. Luke is a _child._ ”

“He deserves better than a lie.”

“He deserves an actual childhood!”

Uncle Hondo clambers to his feet. His tone is mild. “The boy’s smart; he can handle it.”

“Yes, because believing that a child can _handle_ the burden of truths beyond their years _has never gone badly for me before!”_

Luke shrinks into himself. He’s never heard Uncle Ben sound like this. Sure, Uncle Ben will shout at the other two sometimes, or at Uncle Hondo’s crew, in exasperation, but he doesn’t really mean it – not like the sheer, shaking _rage_ in his voice now, and beneath it, the raw grief, the fear. Luke can feel them like a physical thing, a dark, icy wave overflowing from Uncle Ben and lapping at Luke’s feet. He takes a step backwards, as if he can keep out of reach of the water.

Uncle Ben turns to look down as he feels Luke pull away from his hand. His face is shocked; that awful wave of grief rises abruptly higher, threatening to swamp Luke. He gasps. For just a moment, it crosses his mind to run, to get away from that crushing, choking wave – but no, Uncle Ben is so terribly _sad,_ and Luke can’t stand it, can’t leave him, so he reaches out –

Afterwards, Luke will say it all happened at once. His hand is tingling, warm. As he stretches it forward, he can feel the tide of grief and anger receding in front of it, like a magnet repelling another magnet. Uncle Ben’s eyes widen – and then Luke’s fingers are intertwined with Uncle Ben’s, and he can’t feel that terrible grief anymore, and Uncle Ben is open-mouthed, staring at him. There are tears shining in Uncle Ben’s eyes, but they don’t look quite sad, somehow.

“Thank you,” Uncle Ben says.

Uncle Hondo tilts his head. “Did the boy just –”

“A future conversation,” Uncle Ben tells him firmly. He picks Luke up and swings him over to sit on the sofa, next to Uncle Cad; Uncle Hondo sprawls next to him, and ruffles Luke’s hair. Uncle Ben perches on the coffee table so that he and Luke are eye to eye.

“All right,” he says softly. “I’m going to explain this as best I can, Luke, and I’m going to try to answer your questions. I may not be able to answer all of them. I will, however, tell you the truth.” He exchanges a quick glance with Uncle Cad over Luke’s head. “Your father is alive, yes. But he is no longer the man I once knew, and fought beside. The man who was my best friend is… gone.” Uncle Ben draws a shaky breath. “That’s what I meant, when I said he was dead from a certain point of view.”

Luke can feel Uncle Cad’s quiet _pfft_ vibrating in his chest, but Uncle Cad says nothing more than that.

Uncle Ben continues. “A long time ago – just before you were born, in fact – your father… lost his way. He started to do a lot of bad things. Terrible things, in fact. I think he believed he had good reasons, at least at first. But his fear and his anger overcame him, and he –” Uncle Ben swallows, and then reaches for Luke’s hands. “He – hurt a lot of innocent people. Children. And that’s why, when you came along, and your dear mother passed away soon after, we couldn’t let your father know you existed, let alone where you were.”

Luke thinks about this for a moment. “You mean he’d try to hurt me?”

“I don’t know. I’d like to believe he wouldn’t – but perhaps I’m wrong, or perhaps the people around him might try.” Uncle Ben squeezes Luke’s hands. “Luke, I want you to try and understand: your father _loved_ you. From the moment he knew you were on the way, that good, brave man I knew, he loved you. But that man is gone. What’s left of him is a shell, held together with metal and wires. More machine, now, than man. And so we have made sure that he will not find out where you are – and he will not, Luke, I promise you that.”

“And if he did,” Uncle Hondo cuts in, “we would drive him back whimpering to the edge of the galaxy!”

One of Uncle Ben’s hands moves to pat Uncle Hondo’s knee, before Uncle Ben returns his full attention to Luke. “Hondo’s right. You’re safe with us; you don’t have to be afraid.”

Luke’s brow furrows. “Uncle Ben?”

“Yes?”

“Will I turn bad someday, too?”

“No, my darling. Don’t worry about that.”

“But he’s my _dad._ You said I was like him. And… I feel scared sometimes. Or I get mad.”

“Everyone feels scared and mad sometimes. But evil is a choice, and you will always _have_ a choice. Like – like just now. You were feeling scared, and I was, too, but you chose to be kind.” Uncle Ben draws him into a hug, and Luke goes willingly, burying his face in his uncle’s scratchy robes. “And I believe you will keep choosing to be kind.”

***

  
  


“ _That doesn’t feel like an apology, Kenobi,” Cad growls that night, as Obi-Wan nips sharply at the side of his throat._

_Obi-Wan lifts his head, grinning wolfishly. “I should damn well hope it doesn’t.”_

_Cad groans, and tangles his long, cunning fingers in Obi-Wan’s hair. Normally, he likes to be the one in control, to toss the one-time Jedi on his back and pin him down exactly as he pleases, but on occasion – like tonight – Cad is content to sprawl out and let Obi-Wan lead. It’s not unheard of, just unusual._

_What’s even more unusual is the direction Obi-Wan is leading. He’s rough tonight, in a way he’s almost never rough. Cad will be_ marked _in the morning, bruises and bites, the crescent cuts left by those weird little human talons. He allows himself the indulgence of watching Kenobi’s lithe form moving against him for a moment. Then Cad tightens his grip, pulling Obi-Wan by the hair so that they’re eye-to-eye._

_Obi-Wan frowns. “What?”_

“ _As much fun as it is when you’re in this… particular mood.” Cad smiles like a knife-slit, and then it’s gone. “It’s gonna be okay, you know. Kid’s gonna be fine.”_

“ _You can’t know that,” Obi-Wan hisses._

_Cad lets out a sigh that’s half annoyance, half pleasure, as Obi-Wan goes back to hungrily lapping at the fresh bite-mark on his thigh. Neither of them speaks again. But much later, a sated Cad looks up at Obi-Wan, shuddering and gasping above him, and cups his cheek for a moment._

_That's not unheard of, either. But it is unusual._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoth chocolate is canon.
> 
> This universe is ridiculous and I love it.

**Author's Note:**

> Incidentally, Tatooine's three moons are called Ghomrassen, Guermessa and Chenini.


End file.
